Epic news: The long fight between Viacom and Google is partially resolved, with the U.S. District Court deciding that YouTube is protected by the safe harbor provision of the DMCA. Which means?

Basically, it means YouTube can continue to exist in its current form. Today (and yesterday and before), if someone uploads a copyright-infringing clip, the copyright holder alerts YouTube, and YouTube promptly pulls it down. The court says that approach to copyright compliance is totally okay; YouTube is in the clear. Viacom wanted YouTube to basically be responsible for every bit of infringing content that was uploaded, without a copyright holder alerting YouTube. Obviously, that would've sucked. [YouTube]